Too cute, Hugo feeding Lucas

My beautiful nephews

Garden expenses, not so bad...

...Considering we had first seen a landscaper who wanted $23,000 to do the front and backyards, with irrigation systems.

Total cost of what we've done:
-$1,300 for grass sods and good top soil (The Grass Patch)
-$290 for 7 cubic yards of gravel (3/4'-1'1/4) that did actually both the riverwal AND the driveway
-$200 of lawn edging
-$24 for 1 cubic yard of mulch
-$150-$200 of plants and flowers
-$64 for the lattice beneath the deck
-$50 for hoses and sprinklers
-$150 tools (new shovel, leaves vacuum/blower and metal reciprocating saw)

TOTAL: $2,238!!! So, less than 10% of what was originally bid.

Of course, it took us longer, but... :)

Our new garden...

... Or should I just say "our garden"! We can't really say we had one before, it was rather a dump field..


Lots of hard work, possibly what was the hardest physically all round the house, but so rewarding. Especially when we get the nice long ratan chairs to go with it and relax. Even if we haven't really had time to relax yet!

Home Improvement in Austin, who to go with.

Now that all the contractors and workers are out of our house, here's a few contractors' names I can give you, if you're looking for things to be done.

- Chase Electrics, for electricity work. They're beyond good and we've trusted their judgment in much more that electrical stuff. We've become friends :)

- ManorFoster for foundation repair. Extremely competent guys and working with a good spirit. Eager to get the job well done. Plus, will repair a few things here and there, broken pipes, a bit of carpentry. Very efficient.

- Rob Clinchard and Harold Starke, for floor refinishing.

- The Grass Patch, for grass sods. Extremely fast and competent.

- Texas Painting Company, for the house exterior paint. very nice guys.

- A1 Restauration, for the restauration of tubs and sinks.

- Austin Landscape Supplies, for gravel delivery. Quick delivery.

- JLJ Building construction for drywall demolition and construction. Great customer care too.

We've used other contractors for other improvements, but as it did not necessarily go well (too moody or rude), I will not put up there names here.

Over all I'd give the advice of planning twice the time you've estimated to get everything done. Some of the work is dependant of weather conditions. And also, the contractors might be working for somebody whilst working for you... That's what we experienced at least!



I hope this is helpful!

Upstairs floor refinishing

Upstairs floor refinishing
Originally uploaded by manueb.

The floor is finally done! By Rob Clinchard's workmen. Very very good results, we're pretty happy with all that was done. They told us that we had exceptional floors, that boards like this were not cut anymore. So we're a bit proud :)

New grass sods!

New grass sods!
Originally uploaded by manueb.

They were laid down yesterday! Finally!
Now we have to water it like crazy for 4 weeks, and we can't walk on it nor put any weight on it for the same amount of time. A bit tricky, especially for our coming party... but we'll manage.
It's not very green right now, but it will be in a couple of days, once the grass will have had enough water again.
Now, we're "left" with edging the grass, preparing or riverwalk with weed control fabric. We're getting 7 cubic yards of pebbles delivered on monday! CRAZY!

The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson

The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson
Originally uploaded by manueb.

I was browsing through old pictures to print some for our dinning room project, and I absolutely wanted some of these.
The Weather Project from Olafur Eliasson, danish architect, artist...
Set in the Tate Modern end of 2003, through the 1st trimester of 2004, basically a "sun" would rise and set at the time the real sun would rise and set, get warm during the "day". Brilliant, brilliant concept, a semi-circle, made of mono-frequency lamps (we all appeared to be in 'black and white'!) projected in a mirror.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/eliasson/default.htm

Our house paint

Our house paint
Originally uploaded by manueb.

Finally the job is (well) done! We went from white to bright green! It matches the trees, and will look more cheerful in winter!
Now we need to hang the screens back up, one they'll be refinished. And some day in a far future, fix the front porch, whenever we'll be able to afford that!

With Benoit in Barton Springs

With Benoit in Barton Springs
Originally uploaded by manueb.

Benoit visited us in Austin this sunday. He drove from Houston where he's staying all week for a convention. Good thing is, he'll be back in 4 weeks for the party in April :)
We ate at Curra's, a classic, for its avocado margarita..
We showed him Barton Springs and the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens (that we had never visited before... hmm), it was a great day, except for the weather that abandoned us, just today! pfffff :)

New fence, and yard work

New fence, and yard work
Originally uploaded by manueb.

That's it, our fence is done! The job was extremely well done and quick, we're very happy with the result. It might make it harder to have grass sods in, but we'll see. It's moving forward!

iChat with my family

iChat with my family
Originally uploaded by manueb.

The quality of iChat sometimes amazes me.. Can be bad, but when it works well, it's much much better than Skype!

Good things continue to happen

We got our new sofa delivered yesterday, fits perfectly in our living room, it's so cozy now! We're still going to go to IKEA for a couple of less expensive stuff :)

Meanwhile, the foundation is almost done, as is the installation of central AC and heat.. The painting of the house starts tomorrow... Almost there!

Here's what happens when you're not careful! :)

Just kidding...
We were at the obgyn today for the third month's ultrasound and everything is fine! The baby was jumping around everywhere, and pedaling in fluid, very cute.
We're extremely happy!

Makeover of the downstairs bathroom

Makeover of the downstairs bathroom
Originally uploaded by manueb.

That's it, we've finally done some work in our main bathroom, had the leaks fixed and moved the bathtub and toilet around. It is AWESOME! feels much bigger already. Next steps will be to paint, probably white, so the room feels larger, plus tile the floor and get rid of that awful linoleum :)
We're getting there.
So nice to take a bath in this huge bathtub :)

The house (leveling) breaks...

The actual leveling on our house started yesterday, and will end today. 2 days of me watching the house being jacked, and cracked. It really feels like it's going to fall apart although of course, it won't. Or will it?
Anyway, what had to happen happened, a window broke in Shad's office and the walls of the dinning room are popping out... One of the front doors doesn't shut anymore and the backdoor is stuck! More fixing to do! I hope today will bring less surprises than yesterday (we also had the main water pipe break!).
The blue bedroom also has a wall that popped out... booh..

Let's see today, they're done with the outer walls, so it looks like the worst is behind us. Hopefully..



When I think of all the time we've spent fixing up this room...

Portuguese Man O'War

That's what these blue jellyfishes are.
Quite poisonous apparently... although beautiful!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Man_o'_War

South Padre Island, TX

South Padre Island, TX, originally uploaded by manueb.

We were away this last weekend to relax a bit from all our housework and also to celebrate our 6 months' wedding anniversary!
Unfortunately, the weather was not as nice and warm as planned but rather rainy and windy, but we still managed to make the most of it. Nice walks on the beach, walks in the sand dunes, funny tours in the local souvenir shops, and a good seafood restaurant on saturday where we had lobster! YUMMY :)
We've seen a lot of birds, and of these blue sticky things on the beach. We assumed they were jellyfish, altough they lloked really odd and seemed to feed from the sand with only one "tentacule" reaching in. very very strange. Nothing we've seen before!
It was nice to get away while our house is being leveled... pictures coming soon (when the leveling is done!)

Franklin County, at the farm, VA

Franklin County, VA, originally uploaded by manueb.

We are finally home in Virginia, visiting all the family, for the first time for me!
On our first day we got to see the family farm, and Hub (one of Shad's great uncles) let us borrow his 4 wheels in the forest and all around. The weather was (still is) beautiful, and it was an awesome day, meeting lots of good people :)

Hello Kitty is travelling

Hello Kitty is travelling, originally uploaded by manueb.

Here we are in Austin, and Laure and Ian's Hello Kitty's decided to come with us. Sorry this strip is in french...
It's a joke we play on Laure and Ian: we take things from their home, put them in other people's places, and wait and see how long it takes them to realize that their stuff is gone.. can seem a bit mean, but really is fun! hehehe

It's not my fault, Hello Kitty begged me to take her with me! :)

Last weekend at my brother's for a while

At my brother's, originally uploaded by manueb.

I spent a few days with Hugo, Lucas, Tom and Bea to say goodbye temporarly before moving to Austin. These little guys are -with Shad :)- the loves of my life!